The charity match between the Newport All-Stars and The Studio 4 proved to be a great success. Fortunately, the weather stayed fine and at 2pm, 25 players and a good crowd descended on the football pitches at Lilleshall Sports centre.

The studio 4 had pre-match concerns about their keeper with none of our players seeing it as their best position, so it was agreed that 3 or 4 of the lads would rotate. As the game kicked off, The studio 4 were under the cosh a little as we tried to get our shape. The All-Stars were passing the ball well and tried to capitalise on the fact that we did not have a natural goal keeper. They operated with a 4-5-1 formation with Ben Jones in the All-Stars midfield looking sharp as the All-Stars gathered a bit of momentum. Twenty minutes into the game and against the run of play The studio 4 got their first goal scored by Stephen Beech, this was followed 10 minutes later with another goal for The Studio 4 this time scored by Jack Pennells. Five minutes later Chris Latham was brought down in the box and we were awarded a penalty. The studio 4 nominated captain Matt Curbishley to take it who slotted it in the bottom left hand corner. The Studio 4 were in dreamland, now 3 – 0 up.

As we approached half time The Newport All-Stars managed to knick a goal back and then as the second half started, a shuffling of defence and a keeper change saw us lose another goal making it 3 – 2. All of a sudden it looked like we had a match on and we needed to regain our composure and not let them score another.

The Newport All-Stars had the bit between their teeth now and gained a series of corners. Last ditch headers from Jonny Stiles and Dan codling ensured that we stayed in front.

The Studio 4 then made another keeper change and all of a sudden, we started to get our shape back. Stephen Beech Slotted another one in to make it 4 – 2, he then completed his hat trick with a solo run down the left to make 5 – 2. Tom Trimmer made it 6-2 with a beautiful curling effort from outside the box which went in the top right hand corner and after a few missed opportunities earlier in the game, Chris Latham put one away to make the final score 7 – 2!

The most important thing on the day though was the money we managed to raise for charity. With each of the players chipping in and kind donations from the ref and Lilleshall Sports centre, along with a raffle at half time, we managed to raise £364.50 for Children in Need.

The page is still open if anyone still wants donate and thank you very much to everyone.